Gran Vía, heading north out of Barcelona

Trevor @ Saturday March 1st 2008 10:11

Actually Ludwig Hilberseimer, Entwurf für eine Hochhausstadt/Design for a high-rise city (1924). Hitler exported idealistic architects rather than bombs to the US. Hilberseimer ran the Chicago planning department for a while, and they and other public institutions have spent the last ten years tearing down projects built by him and other Bauhaus luminaries.

Enthusiasm in Barcelona for this kind of rubbish has been slower to wane, driven by neo-Eixample pack-em-in speculative deals between developers and councillors.

Pla’s loathing of the Eixample is usually taken as a sign of a village mentality, but Cerdà’s origins situate him even farther from civilisation–even at his least worst he was nothing more than a pig farmer on a roll.


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Barcelona

  • March 17 1844 

    First savings bank opens.
    Ábrese la primera caja de ahorros.

Josep Pla, Palafrugell (1918-9)

  • 17 de març de 1919 A Palafrugell tothom es coneix i això fa que a la superfície de la vida vilatana, al voltant dels afers del poble, siguin sempre visibles algunes passions, els mòbils d’alguns actes, la finalitat d’alguns moviments –i moltes ridiculeses, és clar. A Barcelona, no veig res. Completa obscuritat. Probablement és perquè no tinc encara la vista [...]

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